Hand split tapered shake



May 19, 19 31. I l z 1,805,689

7 HAND SPLIT TAPERED SHAKE Original Filed April 18, 1928 2 SheerIs-Sheet 1' May 19, 1931.- .F. L. DIETZ HAND SPLIT TAPERED SHAKE 2 Sheet$-$heet 2 Original Filed April 18 1923 Patented May 19, 1931 ours-n STATES I PATENT ,o ic E FRANK L. DIETZ, or sEATTLE, wAsI-nNeTo AssIeNon or ONE-HALF To ELWI'N'H.

LUKE, OF sEAT LN, wAsniNGToN, AND ONE-HALE o NORTH PACIFIG. CEDAR Peon UCTS CORPORATION, or sEATTLnwesnINe oN, A CGR-PORA'IZQN 0F wAsHINoTo HAND SPLIT TATERED SHAKE Application filed April 18, 1928, Seria1 No. 270,956. Renewed September 30, 1930.

'yertical grain western red cedar and like woods, have been used in increasing numbers where it is desired to add a rustic touch to'a house. Such shakes may be vused either on the side walls, or on the roof. However, in some instances, the owners of houses on which such shakes have been put, complain that the shakes are too uniform, that their surface is too smooth and without contrasts, and that they have not the rustic appearance desired, due, primarily, to the fact that the cedar is of such quality (as it must be to make from it the large shakes) that it splits too evenly and smoothly, and there is not sufficient break in the. surface of the shakes. They appear almost machine-made in their sameness. Though one is consciousof it when close to the side walls of a house covered with,

split shakes, this uniformity is especially noticeable from a vdistance,fiwhere the slight corrugations and channels, dueto the vaga 'ries of the grain, are not visible, and when such a roof is viewed from below, and nearly in the plane ofthe roof, when the butts are most prominent. Being formed with an ordinary frow, which forms two straight, parallel butt edges, these butts appear quite as straight and machine-made asthe butts of ordinary sawed shingles, ,and lay quite as tightly. This tends to produce an altogether uniform appearance,which is not consistent with therusticity which suchowners have expected, and desire. I e e As has beenistated, the cedar, from which such shakes must be split, must be of the highest quality; the grain must be perfect, for wavy-grained wood cannot be used satisfactorily for the manufacture of such shakes,

for then the tip thickness in particular, cannot be controlled. It follows, then, that when such wood is split it will split very nearly perfectly to a plane,and there will be little in the Way of angled or inclined surfaces to catch the eye, or to reflect light, and to give the I effect of a broken surface. 7 c v 7 Accordingly, it is my object inthe present invention, to produce a shake which has a surface which produces the appearance of beinguquite irregular, and which is in fact exaggerately rigid, or corrugated, .yet to form it of the same high quality wood. It is, of course, a further object to'control the corrugations in such a manner that, though appearing quite irregular, they are in. fact all within a common plane,at least the upper portions of the principal ridges, so that succeeding courses can be laid sufficiently tight -to preventflany possibilityof leakage, and

without the possibility of the shakes in these Succeeding courses being cocked to one side or at an angle to the general plane of the course, and to maintain the required thin ness of the tip. V Associated with these objects, it is a further object to provide a butt edge, at least the edge of the'butt which is to be uppermost,

which is waved to give theimpression of irregularity when viewed from below, thatiis,

when the shake is viewed end on.-

A further object is the provision of such" a shake, which haslongitudinal channels for drainage which, b virtue of being larger than those ordinarily and naturally provided, will tend better to accumulatethe water in large drops and thus facilitate and assist in its draining oil.

' A further'objectis the provision of a frow whereby such shakes as have been described may besplit out so'that the shakescan be thus "produced at one operation,.and require no further operation upon them.

In this specification 1 shall employ the term shake to mean a board having at least one, and preferably two faces, which are scribed in the specification, and particularly 7 defined by the claims terminating the same.

In: the accompanying drawings I'have I shown a shake, such aswould be split bythe process of my patent referred to a s n the frow for making this shake, both in typical forms to illustrate the principle of the invention.

Figure 1 is a perspective view of the frow, whichI intend to employin the manufacture of my shakes. A

Figure 2 is a perspective view showing, to a larger scale, the edge of the frow.

Figure 3is a perspective view of a shake made with such a frow.

Figure 4 is a plan view and Figure 5 a side elevation, illustrating the manner of using such a frow.

Figures 6 and 7 are views similar to Fi ures 4 and 5, illustrating further the manner of using such a frow.

My invention is largely understandable froman inspection of the drawings. However, it should he pointed out that with the frow 5, having its entering edge provided with a plurality of corrugations, that is to say, waved as seen in edge View, and having a broadened back 51, or like means to permit ittov be struck and driven into a block, it is a simple matter ,to cut from a block, as 2, a

.pluralityof shakes which will taper from butt to tip, according to the method disclosed in my former patent.v This is illustrated in Figures 4, 5 6 and 7, wherein the block 2 is shown in Figures a and 5 with one end, 25, uppers ,most, and the other end, 28, resting upon the ground or other suitable support. The frow 5 is now placed in positionon the top 25, inward fromthe edge 21 of the block a distance equal to the desired butt thickness, and struck to enter the block and to define a plane oi cleavage at '20. This plane of cleavage gradually tapers towards the edge 22 of the block ,to define a thinner tip. Ordinarily such blocks are split from larger bolts, and hence the surface 23 of the first shake off of a block will be split, but will not be exaggeratedly corrugated. The inner surface defined by the plane of cleavage 20, however,

' willbe so corrugated, as will be both surfaces of succeeding shakes.

After taking off the first shake in this manner, the block is reversed end for end,the end 26being now uppermost, as seen in Figures 6. and 7, the frow again entered along the planeof cleavage 20, set back from the edge 23. by a distance equal to the butt thickness now desired in thesecond shake, and a second shake is taken off. By repeating this process, reversing the block end for end each time, shakes will be taken off of the block which have both surfaces eXa-ggeratedly ridged, or corrugated, and the butt edges of which. are irregular or waved, ratherthan at the plane of cleavage, the edge 23 at the tip of the shake represents the termination of the plane of cleavage at the bottom end of the block, after the second shake has been taken off. I

a It will be noted how these several edges are waved, the line 20, being formed by the frow, corresponds quite closely to the irregularities of the edge 50 of the frow. The edge 23, which is formed merely by a continuation of the splitting along the plane of cleavage, and not by any cutting action, still retains the irregularities of the edge 20, although there is some tendency for the exaggerated ridges to run out towards the tip end of a shake, especially when such a shake is of 37 length. Thisis not undesirable, however, but in fact assists in the laying of the shakes so that they will fit tightly one upon another in the manner of sawed shingles.

the ridge R are distinct throughout the length of the shingle, and afford a pleasing break to the sameness of surface which would result from the use of an ordinary straight edged. frow. By employing a long frow, and by placing the frow ,differentlyin the several shakestaken off of a block, the surface may be varied in different ways by different arrangementsof the ridges, and in this manner a wide varietyof surface forms may come from a single block and from a s ngle frow.

This prevents any appearance of sameness or 2. A. shake tapering from butt to tip, the

two faces being naturally split, the upper face having the natural corrugations exaggeratecl at its butt end, and tending to run out to a common plane towards its tip.

3. A shake tapering from butt to tip, the two faces being naturally split, the upper face having the natural corrugations exaggerated at its butt end, and tending to run out to a common plane towards its tip, and the under surface having like exaggerated corrugations commencing at its tip end, and tending to run out at the butt.

Signed at Seattle, King County, Washington, this 11th day of April, 1928.

FRANK L. DIETZ.

Otherwise the ridges, as for example, the ridge R and 

